


Le Monde est à Nous

by ChingKittyCat



Category: Kirby (Video Games), Kirby - All Media Types
Genre: Anger, Animal Death, Animals, Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, Evil, French Characters, Gen, Loss of Limbs, Magic, Manipulation, Pre-Canon, Slow To Update, Survival Training, Weapons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:40:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25190284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChingKittyCat/pseuds/ChingKittyCat
Summary: "Common?""What? Yes??""Who are you?""What do you mean, 'who am I'?"-Rated Teen for general edginess.Mouse over non-English text for translation. For those on mobile and unable to mouse, please visit each chapter's notes for a pure English version.Translation work done by ThatOneFunAnon.[Fic Art, CONTAINS SPOILERS]
Kudos: 7





	Le Monde est à Nous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [[Pure English version, only recommended if not able to mouse over text]](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_5YvPiMDiLTFOl9pVUUatklGopkkqJD6b-IKANYyG5k/edit?usp=sharing)

Susanna looked at her father, then at the machine. It was something her dad talked about a lot. Mother Computer this, Mother Computer that, but now, now that they had the funds and the manpower to find and construct it, it really was here. It was real now.

"Well, isn't that a.." The small, blue-suited man beside her started, looking at the shut off computer with a most indefinable emotion due to his square rimmed glasses, "A tube."

Her father gave the man a look of scorn, like he'd just looked at the Mona Lisa and said 'well isn't that quite a woman'. Susanna gave the same look, albeit less so, because she'd never seen this man before; chances are he just didn't work around here. Here being the robotics division.

"Who exactly are you to say what this brilliant machine is?" Her dad snapped.

"I'm the babysitter of the man who bought your company and funded this project, that's who I am." 

Susanna wasn't going to lie, she found this man to be quite odd looking. He had an entirely flat face, with the only part really sticking out being his nose and lips; his chin went straight down. Then he had two sets of cheekbones, which she found weird because she had approximately zero of those.

"Oh, uh," her dad sort of settled and humbled himself, "you're.. _His_ consultant?"

"Yes, and since he has expressed that he doesn't care a single bit about your work, he's having me supervise you because he doesn't trust anyone else. Which'll boil down to weekly visits, because I'm busy doing other things. I've heard you're a genius, so I'm sure you're not incompetent."

Susanna didn't like the way this guy spoke either. It sounded sultry and strange, especially since that sultry tone wasn't kept up by any cheer. There was some pep in there, yes, but she felt like it was the most he could fake right now.

"Well, thank you for having faith in me."

Dad was back to sounding more confident, keeping his sight on his big computery tube. Around it were scaffolds and other such easily breakable or removable constructions, used by the builders who'd long since left for other projects earlier today. They just hadn't bothered to take anything down, considering what was gonna happen.

"So," this supervisor gestured to the big tube, "are you going to show me anything today, Haltmann? Or am I going to have to inform my 'superior' that your deadline was missed?"

"Don't be so rash. I'll turn it on now. I'm just as excited as you are to see it."

Dad pulled a small remote from out of his pocket and held it outwards. It sort of looked like a television remote, only a little, tiny bit more elaborate. Just as he was about to turn on this thing, Susanna interrupted.

"Dad," Susanna tugged on a part of his suit, "I want to turn it on."

Her dad looked at his supervisor, then back at Susanna, then at the remote, then at Susanna again. He handed it over to her, pointing at the button she needed to press before allowing it into her tender little hands.

"Who's that?" 

The supervisor didn't even look at her, just kept his eyes glued on the machine as she pressed the power button on the remote.

"She's my daughter, her name's Susanna."

As her dad spoke, the hum of electricity and ancient machinations clicking made themselves loud and clear. The glowing symbols on the front of the Mother Computer started at their bottom and worked their way up vertically in their ascent of light, pooling and congregating at the eye, still dark with death.

"I'm hoping she can help me with robotics projects in the future like this."

He continued. Susanna's eyes were glued at what she saw before her, though. As the permanently curved wings of the mother computer moved out from being 'folded' to slightly out, the blue bulbs lighting up two at a time; one on each side. With each activated bulb came a crystalline feather, shimmering blues and cyans at their tips.

A large whir before a piercing yellow eye shot on, motionless and staring at the people who'd reconstructed it. Susanna managed to keep herself from making delighted noises, meanwhile her dad wasn't so self suppressant. The supervisor himself was a bit astounded too, and who wouldn't be. This was the Mother Computer here, something ancient texts spoke about for great, mystical power. Magic and technology. Or, perhaps, just really advanced technology.

"ONLINE," the great machine's voice was ungodly loud and automated, causing everyone in the room to cover their ears. "BOOTING RECOGNITION FEATURES. NEW LOCATION DETECTED. NEW OPERATORS DETECTED. NEW TIME DETECTED. INPUT LOCATION, NEW ADMINS, AND CURRENT TIME ACCORDING TO ZONE. COMMANDS ACCEPTED, AND WILL NOT BE DOCUMENTED UNTIL COMMAND HISTORY INPUTS ARE SATISFIED."

The supervisor chuckled, smiling in probable wonder at this ancient tech miraculously booting up after installing some more modern parts to places that they knew how to replace.

"Well," he'd said, "it certainly does seem to work. Register our boss as an admin and I'll be back in my own business downstairs. And that's not an innuendo, you know I work in the lower levels."

The supervisor faced her dad, and all he did was nod. Then he floated down to put his hands on Susanna's shoulders the best he could considering she had no shoulders.

"Susanna, I didn't have the chance to say it before, but this computer.." 

He looked like he could barely contain his excitement, and he sounded like it too. The machine's orange eye flickered to further light as if it were focused on something.

"It's going to be your path into becoming a strong, cunning, and smart young woman. It'll teach you everything you ever need to know about the world, about other people, and what it's like to work hard to get what you want. It could teach you whatever you want to know, whatever interests you, so long you keep heading down this road. Whatever it does, whatever happens with it, it'll be a better teacher than I ever could be to you, and it'll do it a lot faster too.” He’d smiled and chuckled. “I'm _basically_ handing off your homeschooling to it."

Susanna didn't really know what her father's little monologue was for, but he did seem genuine in it. Internally, she just sort of shrugged it off as some motivator to help her do better on her robotics projects he'd assigned her. 

But there was someone who didn't shrug it off.

"UNDERSTOOD," Mother Computer responded, "CALCULATING."

Dad, startled by the loudness, turned back around to see this motionless machine and hear its noises of automation. The supervisor in a suit looked rather concerned at her dad's confusion, but not enough to say anything. Dad took his hands off her shoulders.

"What are you calculating?"

Nothing came in response to his query, so he repeated himself.

"Mother Computer, what are you calculating? Answer me."

"CALCULATING BEST POSSIBLE WAY TO ACCOMPLISH THE FOLLOWING LIST; TURN FEMALE SUBJECT INTO STRONG, CUNNING, SMART YOUNG WOMAN, TEACH EVERYTHING FEMALE SUBJECT WILL NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WORLD, OTHER PEOPLE, WORKING HABITS, WHATEVER SHE WANTS TO KNOW OR INTERESTS HER, AND HOW TO TEACH THESE REQUIREMENTS BETTER THAN ANY REGULAR PERSON COULD. 'HOMESCHOOLING'. ALSO CALCULATING SHORTEST POSSIBLE TIME FOR THIS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED."

"Oh," her dad mumbled, "well, I guess get calculating that."

Susanna had her ears covered with her hands, tangling her big mittens in with her purple hair as she did so. That thing was loud. She took a look on the remote and no volume control was present. Great. Why.

"So, are you going to get on putting certain people in the admin list or.."

"Yes, yes, of course." 

Her dad waved off the supervisor, who was happy enough to make his way outside, away from the machine who yelled every single word. But the hiss and whir then the abrupt, sudden stop and start of the tube they'd gathered to watch once again caught their attention, because it was some big thing making odd sounds.

"CALCULATIONS COMPLETE. PROCEED?"

"Yes?" 

Haltmann answered, and the machine just stared at him and his daughter blankly the way machines did. There was a moment of silence (well, as silent they could be in a room full of computer stuffs). 

"ESTIMATED TIME NECESSARY; THREE SECONDS IN CURRENT THEORETICAL TIME ZONE."

All the bulbs on the Mother Computer's wings pulsed like a heart beat before stopping. Honestly, it was like a peacock showing off it's feathers.

"EXECUTING SPACE-TIME TRANSPORT."

"What?" 

Her dad gawkingly questioned. The supervisor was here for the lightshow too, as a great wind began to slowly produce itself towards the computer, blowing Susanna's purple bangs and her dad's goofy purple mustache.

"EXTRA DIMENSIONAL ROAD. TESTING."

A thunderous rip, a scream of dimensions tearing themself asunder, but no hole produced itself. More wind, though, and more noise as Susanna covered her ears from the wails of space and time. 

"EXECUTING."

And with that, the true hellish screams began. Of wind whistling and harsh scrapes of reality's flesh against the Mother Computer's unforgiving blade became this uproarious symphony of sounds most disgustingly wonderful. So much so that one couldn't help wonder what could possibly be causing these noises, or why they were there in the first place.

"ERROR. TRYING AGAIN."

The noises stopped. The wind stopped.

Then the wind began again, but this time the noises were gone. A singular, starry portal of dark blues and gleaming whites caused this suction to increase, pulling papers, pencils, whatever in general that was loose into its void which absorbed them like opaque water. This harsh wind whipped and crashed into the two floating people harsher than it did to their ground-anchored co-worker, Susanna especially so because she was lighter.

Susanna's grip on the remote failed first, it slipping out of her hand and directly into the portal. Next, her 'hold' above the ground failed as she tried desperately to fly away from the portal that vacuumed her in. 

"Susanna!" 

Her dad cried as he grabbed onto her floating hands. He was being pulled just as badly as her, but not so much considering how the supervisor was doing his part to try and anchor him to the ground, wrapping his arms around her dad's back to support him.

"Stop! Mother Computer, stop!" 

Her dad's insistent cries couldn't even be heard by Susanna due to the wind, there was no way the computer would've ever heard him. It undoubtedly didn't, as the portal stayed.

The way floating hands worked was peculiar. They only worked as supports for one's floating (or even non-floating body) at a certain distance. Fall past that distance, it's like losing a limb that could be easily reattached. For Susanna, her length for 'cutoff', was lower due to her age, and her ability to keep and maintain or be closer than that minimum distance was weak.

Lights began to flicker, the supervisor was having a harder and harder time keeping hold on the ground. How he was keeping his footing in the first place despite the tornado was a mystery, but right now it was working in their favor so it wasn't their place to question.

What didn't work in their favor was the factor of Susie's nerdiness and past laziness towards physically moving around. That did not work in her case, and her connection to her hands was swiftly ripped away from her. That loss of connection gave her a shock of pain, breaking further concentration and rocketing her towards what could well be her demise. Tears flung themselves from their eyes in a desperate attempt to escape, only to be pulled in before her.

"Dad!!" 

Her wail rang softly against the agonized wind as her being was sent into the starscape of the star portal, all consumed by its deepness. Then it shut, the wind disappeared, and she was gone.

* * *

Susanna was essentially chucked into a yellow, rocky ground, immediately cutting her pale face on the insignificant but sharp edges of the ground that'd she'd been thrust upon. She was tossed out into this new place like trash into a garbage dump; unapologetically and dejectedly. She wasn't to lose hope immediately, though, she brought herself up as soon as she possibly could, to turn and rush back into the portal that'd brought her there.

As soon as she turned her head to see it though, it'd closed before her wide blue eyes. Where it once was, now there was just air. She floated to the air that'd ripped apart previously, not returning to whence she came.

Trembling, Susanna took a look around her surroundings, seeing the wondrously horrifying vacuum of space, galaxies, and stars. Unlike space, though, this place wasn't cold. It was more of a nice room temperature. Also unlike it, large similarly-shaped perfectly angular yellow space rocks (such as the one she stood on) floated around in even and parallel lines like tiny mazes or puzzle pieces.

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes as she realized what was going on, where she was, and how stuck she'd become. Then she noticed the remote that'd been used to turn the Mother Computer on had been sucked in with her, and her mood lifted. Slightly.

When she tried to pick it up, though, she'd made the stunning conclusion that her hands hadn't been sucked into the portal with her. She had no visible mouth like other choice alien species did, so she couldn't pick it up with that either. The mouth she did have behind her skin wasn't big enough to hold it anyways. She couldn't do anything, she didn't know where she was, how to get back to her dad, or even if she could.

So, Susanna took to the first thing that came to mind; panicking. Shuddering and pale faced, she sat herself down like a scared puppy and looked around terrified. Then, after that, she began to sob as pessimistic swarms of vultures swirled around in her head, squawking variances of how she'd die alone and afraid. This sobbing switched between panicked accelerated breaths intermittently.

Unable to think of what to do, she was only snapped out of her own turmoil when she heard a mighty roar from somewhere else. The clap of a swarm of wings, small and big. She looked around in a flurry, trying to determine where exactly it was coming from. Well, she most certainly did find out where it was. Thankfully, it seemed pretty far away.

A group of what seemed to be large bird-like, multi-colored orbs following after one, much larger yellow orb. Susanna could see it's jaws from where she was, as it roared again, parting its teeth to allow the realm to hear it. It flew to a stop, where its smaller associates gathered around it like a protective shield. Then, they dispersed, and the larger one had completely vanished.

Susanna noticed some of the orbs were coming her way. She couldn't stay here, she'd be seen by whatever those were. She wasn't going to take her chances in assuming they were friendly. Infact, she wasn't going to take her chances on thinking about it at all. All she did was take a mad dash to the next rocks she believed would provide her some safety. She'd pressed her body flat against the rock, trying to keep her whimpers and sobs down as she hid.

Telling from the flaps beating above her head completely going past her, her hiding spot worked relatively well. But what had worked well against the birds which were focused on flying ahead and not looking back didn't work well against other things.

Susanna found this more than apparent only a couple minutes after the birds had flown far away. She'd stayed behind her cover, paralyzed by fear. That's when a metal blade was stuck right infront of her, an inch away from inserting itself into her open eye. On the handle's end was a floating egg-like person.

Dressed in these deep, dark blues, they stood like a sore thumb against the yellow island. However, against the void of space, they might've been invisible. But their sword certainly wasn't invisible.

* * *

"W-Where am I?"

"[Calme-toi..](.)"

The egg-like, who'd refused to talk to her much more than a few grumbles and grunts, gave her basically nothing to work with. What they did give her to work with was the fact that the tip of their blade was against her back. Yeah, no, that was definitely very convincing as to what her situation currently was. 

At the very least there's other people here, she'd tried to reason. If people lived here, that means she wouldn't die. Hopefully, at least. 

"[L'étranger avait l'air jeune… peut-être que Velléity ira doucement sur elle.](.)"

Susanna's desire for answers was promptly crushed under this foreign language's boot. She whined to herself quietly, just going along with wherever she was going to be pushed.

She felt like she knew where she was going enough; forward. So she kept far enough ahead that she didn't need to have a sword pressed up against the back of her sweater. She wasn't exactly used to being on the business end of the sword, and she certainly didn't want to be acquainted with any other part other than the handle in the future.

After what felt like a year's worth of shaking travel, the 'person' had pushed her towards what appeared to be a series of hollowed out yellow stone chunks, each one with doors and all floating relatively close to eachother. From what she could tell, it was a village. Rudimentary and ugly as sin, but still a village full of blade-wielding evildoers.

Susanna was pushed into one particular door, which she opened and held open for her captor to enter and close behind her. From what she could examine of the room she was in, from the flags to the desk to the particularly intimidating figure who sat at it, she was most likely in the presence of someone in power.

"[Un nouvel étranger, bonjour. Vous devez avoir été aspiré par une sorte de portail pour arriver ici. Comment est-ce, dans la dimension normale en ce moment ?](.)"

The purple-dressed, blue and white egg-like behind the desk spoke and Susanna could only make a confused noise in response. With the blade still to her back, the long silence she kept drew out a prod from the steel.

"Uh, I don't.. Speak whatever you're speaking. I wanna go home.."

"[Est-ce commun ? Eugh,](.)" The egg-like behind the desk sounded disgusted, "[vraiment grossier, celui-ci. Puisqu'elle restera avec nous jusqu'à ce que qui sache quand, peut-être jusqu'à sa mort, nous devrons y remédier. Je ne peux tout simplement pas comprendre cette horrible absurdité qui sort de sa bouche.](.)"

The egg behind Susanna coughed, trying to interject.

"[Mais elle est mignonne.](.)"

"[J'espère que tu n'insinues rien par ça.](.)"

"[Je n’ai rien insinues ! est-ce que vous insinuez quelque chose !?](.)"

The purple egg-like squinted at the blue one, then at Susanna. Then purple one seemed to notice something wrong about her, and looked annoyed and confused.

"[Qu’as-tu fait avec ses mains ?](.)" The purple one growled.

"[De rien, rien !](.)" The blue one was slightly taken aback, waving one of his disembodied hands. "[Elle n’avait pas les mains quand j’ai trouvée, elle étaie juste comme ça.](.)"

"I just want to go home.."

Susanna whimpered in the middle of the conversation, making the two of them shut up. Either they knew what she was saying or they could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn't very happy.

"[Enfant, quoi que tu dises, malgré sa laideur, il faut que ça cesse d'être triste. Cette dimension n'a pas de temps pour la tristesse. Si vous voulez survivre, vous devrez parler notre langue et commencer à vous battre. Et la première chose que nous devons faire est de donner vous les main. Eugh, pourquoi est-ce que je m'embête, le barbare ne peut pas me comprendre.](.)"

The purple egg floated out from behind his desk to approach her, putting his hand around her back to take her from the sword she had against her. The blue egg stayed by the door to make sure she didn't manage to get out. Which'd be hard enough as is even if she did have hands.

The purple egg then let her just float there, taking his hand off her back as he pointed to Susanna. Susanna pointed to herself, looking questioning. The purple egg nodded.

"Susanna."

She stated, unsure if she was being asked for her name.

"[Susanna, lui donne une chambre et un livre à propos de ma langue.](.)"

The purple egg spoke to the blue one in a commanding tone, and telling from all those other words and the inclusion of her name, it was definitely about her in some way. Susanna had to only guess that it wasn't anything positive, the forcefulness of the statements making her shiver in fear. She didn't know this person, she didn't know what he was saying.. It made her eyes get misty.

"[Nous devrons étier couper les beaux cheveux violets, ou ils devront monter en une queue-de-cheval. Obtenez-lui L'entraînement. Et des mains. Les mains en premier, l'entraînement plus tard. Faites des rochers pour ressembler à des mains, mettez des gants autour d'eux et cela devrait bien fonctionner pour elle. Je veux qu'elle connaisse les armes et les épées pour qu'elle puisse être utile.](.)"

"[C'est beaucoup pour un enfant.](.)" The blue egg replied, sounding somewhat snarky.

"[On n’a jamais d'étranger si jeune ici,](.)" the purple egg sat back down behind his desk, "[donc j'en profite et je fais d'elle un soldat bien équilibré. Avons-nous un problème ?](.)"

"[Bien. Qui va l’entraîner ?](.)"

"[Peu m'importe qui l'entraîne, demandez à quelqu'un de le faire et de bien le faire. Faites des équipes et tournez si vous détestez les enfants autant. D'accord, sortez-la d'ici et allez la mettre dans une chambre vide ou quelque chose. Cela ou la mettre avec une famille et dire que c'est leur cadeau de l'extérieur. l'un ou l'autre fonctionne.](.)"

The blue egg nodded and grabbed Susanna by the 'scruff' of her sweater collar, pushing her back out the door as the conversation just ended with her having no idea of what'd just transpired. She thrashed and wiggled a little before giving up.

"Does no one speak my language?"

Susanna wondered out loud, and telling by the general lack of a response from the eggs in this 'village', the answer was yes. She was dragged, basically, all the way to a different block. The door was knocked upon, then a new room was entered. The room was also full of eggs, various different colors. Soft blue, red, and orange. She couldn't tell if any of them were very friendly and honestly she couldn't register much else about them other than their colors because well. She was sorta crying right now.

"[Le nom de cette fille est .. Euh .. Susie.](.)” The egg sounded unsure, as though they’d forgotten something. “[Elle restera avec toi maintenant. Apprenez-elle notre langue, notre adresse au tir et notre jeu d'épée. Rendez-l'utile et Velléity sera probablement être heureuse avec vous.](.)"

The blue egg was flat, not amused as they unhanded her, leaving her in the room with all the eggs as they looked over her like one would when they were forced to adopt someone into their custody.

* * *

When 'Susie' was given this whole book full of what seemed to be very big words (as in font size, not length) with pictures attached, she caught on quick enough as to what was happening. She'd only just learned her own language maybe a couple years ago, she knows what education books for babies looked like. She felt her tiny child ego grumble at the idea of having to use little kid's books to learn something.

"I don't want to."

She objected, but the egg who'd placed it infront of her looked at her blankly before leaving her to it, going back to their dinner with the other eggs she'd apparently been left with. That other blue egg hadn't come back for her, so these eggs were probably her new caretakers. She'd already had her daily cry about it, but all that time spent crying was too much. She spent that much time just sat here doing nothing.

She wasn't going to get anything she wanted without reading this gosh darn book, she figured. Learning the language of the savages who lived in rock houses, feeling the ground under her shake as she listened to the distant roars of ungodly birds.

She cracked open the book. She did the best she could with no hands, using her forehead to move the pages. She began to read some words out loud, associate them with pictures that she was displayed of them.

"Anneau," She read out loud, looking at the picture of a ring, "bonnet," next to a hat, "cochon," next to a picture of a round pink animal with a snout, "dé," next to some dice, "escargot," next to a snail and so on. It was all so confusing, though, how was she supposed to remember both her language and this language? Did she just had to combine the two? Would anyone tell her what was going on?

One of the eggs floated over to her, a different egg than the one who gave her the book. The orange one. They picked up the book from her, wiped her eyes (which had gotten misty) then began to read to her and instruct her in the language she was being forced to learn. 

Whenever she answered with what something was correctly, she received a 'c’est exact' as well as what seemed to be a smile, establishing in her what was positive and what was negative around here.

* * *

Susie didn't take well to swords, guns were more her speed. She felt much more safe behind the barrel of one rather than a sword, the sword was so barbaric, while guns were something she familiarly recalled to be all spread about her father's workshop as he attached them to amazing weapons of war. She faintly recalled him telling her that he'd personally teach her how to use on of the many mechs he was making, but only when he had more than plenty money to live comfortably and build things at leisure.

Now, with the rudimentary, dirt-coated depressing green-gray lasergun in her hand, she wished for leisure. As she fired it at the targets set up on some few floating, bright yellow rocks, her entire body recoiled and pushed her back, the bang ringing out as she completely missed the few meter away rock and soaring off into the vast sparkling emptiness behind it. 

She lowered the gun and wiped her eyes with the back of her glove. Her hands were hard against her face, and maybe if she too were made of stone, they wouldn't've felt so strange against her. Despite her act of comfort, she still couldn't help but cry from how overwhelming it all was. 

The supervising egg gave a sudden worried and concerned look, speaking words she couldn't understand, which just made it all the worse. She put the two boulders she had as hands to her eyes, covering them as she haphazardly tossed the gun onto the ground. The gun fired once more, bullet travelling (thankfully) past and not through Susie and the egg, colliding dangerously against the stone barrier which stood tall around the firing range.

Susie was too overwhelmed, really, to care, and instead just hovered down onto the floor to curl up into, what the supervisor thought, was an overly melodramatic ball. Though despite the theatrics, they still were saying things in a rather soft, cooing voice. Susie didn't care, though.

"I want to go home!" Susie's voice was broken through multiple sobs and was hard to understand through her gasping and sniffling, but the message was still clear enough.

"[J'aimerais pouvoir comprendre ce que tu dis .. Mais ça va, tu vas bien, je ne suis pas fâchée. Rentrons chez toi, d'accord ?](.)"

The egg pat her on the back before picking her up like she were a baby that was just a smidge too big. Susie had half the mind to punch the egg or slap it for even daring to touch her, which she did. She slapped and hit and did all manner of things like a little girl should when picked up by what was a random stranger, in a place she didn't know, in a situation she didn't desire to be in.

When she was delivered back to her caretakers, after much brutal mauling of the gun supervisor, they'd most likely thanked the fellow egg and brought them in to tend to their now many bruises and bumps. Susie, meanwhile, was locked inside of her uncomfortable next-to-empty windowless room. Despite the fact that there was no lightsource, the room was lit up like a grocery store. 

Everything was oversaturated for her eyes, and she couldn't get any relief from the bright yellows of the walls, floor, and ceiling no matter how she tried. When she threw herself into the shallowly comforting bed she had, she bunched herself up in her dark blue blanket both for comfort and relief. 

When she calmed, which was about three or so hours later, she brought herself out of her room to look at her caretakers. They cooed and sighed at her, bringing her over to the dinner table to eat. They tried striking up a conversation, she thought, but she had nothing to say to them. She would've talked if she could, but they spoke the equivalent of nonsense to her. 

"[Vous serez bien maintenant ? Voulez-vous un câlin ?](.)" One of them asked.

"[Vous avez fait un numéro sur le gent, vous devriez lui présenter des excuses après le dîner si vous vous êtes calmé.](.)" The other stated, sternly.

Susie just ate her fill and went back into her room. 

So, she cracked open one of the books she was given on learning the language, sighed heavily, and tried to learn how to learn a new language without any help, or any techniques on how to do such a thing.

The days trickled on past then, blending together as she woke up, had breakfast, then studied the new language like it was one of her dad's engineering lessons. The book was her entire life, and while yes, the situation caught up to her again like it did at the firing range, at least she wasn't holding a gun. She needed to learn their language, and it was less risky and far more lenient than firing a gun while emotionally charged. Pages didn't have a chance to kill her if she threw books at floors.

The words confused her, but after what felt like weeks of dedicating herself, some things started to click. The exercises in the book asked of her a few things, and she'd check the answers to see if she was right. More often than not, she wasn't, so she'd try again, get it correct, and move on. The mistakes drilled into her, making her legitimately cry at first, but it got easier as she tried to tune out and just do what she needed to do.

Occasionally, an egg would visit while she was studying, pat her on the back comfortingly, and say a few words. 

"[Apprend-vous beaucoup ?](.)" The navy blue egg asked.

"[Oui, j’apprends.](.)" 

She'd responded slowly, trying to be sure of herself. The egg smiled softly at her, and celebratory fireworks shot off in her head as relief spilled over in gigantic waves. For whatever reason, it was much, much better than just getting a question right. Maybe because something good was happening, and she was so desperate for some goodness.

The egg chuckled, seemingly good-naturedly humored by how she spoke and how unsure she sounded. They thought she was cute. 

She looked at them slightly puzzled, but got it.

"Merci." She'd said, embarrassed.

* * *

One thing Susie learned fairly quickly was that the meat in this dimension was sparse in amount and sparse in flavor. When she'd put it into her hidden mouth, the meat tasted like carbonated water; next to flavorless, attacking, and generally unpleasant. Except at least water was refreshing, the meat she was given every day was about as thick as rubber and as just tiring to eat.

She'd found out why when she was forced out of the house to go socialize with some other members of the community. No one around was her age, which meant that she was just taken along with her egg guardians while they socialized with some of the others. They were too busy speaking to others. They spoke to eachother quickly, fluently, in a way she could barely keep track of. If language was a matter of weaving words, then they were like spiders on caffeine. 

Unamusingly, she was kept close to the eggs she knew through the ultimate parenting tactic of 'holding hands'. That did not stop her head and eyes from wandering, however. She caught sight of something she couldn't help but stare at. It was one of the monsters she'd saw when she'd first arrived. It was in-town, fighting with some eggs who kept it held down.

They were taking piece off of it, cutting it up for meat. Susie's eyes stayed open as she watched— in as careful detail as one could when staring from a distance— what exactly what was going on. However, the creature went limp and promptly exploded, flinging all the meat that'd been cut as and the butchering eggs some distance away.

The bang resounded across the settlement, and while some eggs turned to look, none were too shocked by it. Susie, however, couldn't keep her eyes off it. They'd taken the wings off and some of the feathers, but it appeared as though most of the meat had been lost when the thing exploded.

Susie's eyes gleamed as she thought of herself, not in a fighting position, but doing important scientific research upon creatures seemingly unknown. Yes, taking them apart, seeing what made them tick.. While this village hadn't thought of the idea, Susie, she was a true academic. If she could do something with those creatures, whatever they were called, the ones of gnashing teeth and glittering wings, with the all-too-powerful ability to seemingly open portals.. 

Perhaps she'd get home.


End file.
